R2I diaries - Day 5

Saturday

Today is the day we move in. Woke up as usual. I notice these days without the use of any alarms I am awake by 6.30 max. Thank God! I remember those struggles with the alarm some days when I used to sleep late back in Sunnyvale.

We packed some milk (for the milk-boiling), some vermicelli and some jaggery, along with Y and S's Primus Cabson stove cylinder. Some water bottles. Subhash had asked Y's driver to arrange for a truck to pick up our luggage and take it to the new place. We were done loading and ready to go around 10 I think. We landed in the new place and got the keys to it and went in after a little adventure with the elevators where we got confused between one building's elevator and ours and finally, thanks to my Kannada speaking abilities (;)) we found the right one. (That is the one thing you notice in Bangalore, you hardly need to speak Kannada anymore. But I am insisting on speaking Kannada, to hone my skills. Afterall, its one-half of my descent:D )

Y and S were with us for the milk-boiling, we ate the Vermicelli (luckily we found the boxes and spoons I packed in one of those enormous suitcases) and then Y and S went off to see the Cisco campus, because S hadn't seen it yet. S really liked our place she said, so I was happy :) We got to unpacking. Subhash did most of it. I was amazed to see his enthusiasm and energy while he did it. Hopping from one room to another, one suitcase to another.

Y and S came back and we went to TOTAL Mall which is about a 10 minute car-ride from our place. Had lunch here (stupid fellow had a food joint but no tables, tck..tck..tck..so we had to eat on benches and it was highly uncomfortable I assure you). We then shopped for some absolute essentials (which was 6 bags full;) ) for the house like rice, pulses, dish-wahsing soaps, hand-washing soaps, and so on and so forth. Were pretty amazed at how expensive this whole settling in affair is becoming :( But I guess you have to bear the brunt of your choices ;)

We were going to meet SSK who was another friend of Subhash's in Engineering. Y and S were going to help us drop off our groceries at home and then drop us off at Koramangala where we were to meet SSK and his wife V. And then they were going to help us shop for our new fridge, microwave, washing machine and water purifier :D It sounds like we are these hapless kids who our friends are taking turns to take care of? Well, that is exactly how I feel and I feel thankful for these guys!

We shopped for a while in e-Zone. We liked some models in fridges. Likewise in Washing machines and Microwaves. We asked him when he could deliver and he said it would take 8 days. 8 days! In the heat of this city to have vegetables and milk out for 8 days was impossible. The enterprising shopper that Subhash is, he said OK, lets check out some other stores as well, and if they all say the same thing then we can see what to do. We went into Pai's which was just across e-Zone. So much for competing! We saw the same model in the fridge that we liked and we checked out some other models in washing machines as the one we saw there wasn't here. We finally narrowed down on everything we wanted to get. This guy said he would deliver on Monday evening itself so made an advance payment and got out.

SSK was hungry so we hopped into the nearby Sukh Sagar and I had Mosambi juice while the others had Badam Milk and Alu chat. I was having Mosambi juice for the second time that day (TOTAL Mall was the first) and the way this juice tasted both times, consistently, made me happy. Freshly squeezed and all. In the US I would get so tired of looking for freshly squeezed juices. Bah! Some menus were worse. They would say Freshly Squeezed and the fine print read "Tropicana Brand, no pulp". How that fits the definition of freshly squeezed only God knows! I am happy I am back home :) Now. For the juice. Yeah.

We went to Lifestyle next and shopped for some bath accessories like shower curtain etc and yet again complained about how expensive it was, concluded there was no way out till we knew which areas sold cheap stuff and got out;)

SSK and V dropped us home, checked our place out and said it was beautiful. Second compliment in that day and it made me happy. :D :D I made some Rice (Yay!!!! I have groceries now!!) and mixed it with MTR Puliyogare powder (that is always a life-saver), mixed up some soup and we had that soup and Puliyogare for dinner. Good :) Happy Stomach! :)